Friday, January 13, 2006

I just happened to search Google with the ISBN for Hal Spacejock book 2, and what turned up but a new SF catalogue on the Penguin website?

It's a pretty cool design, and they have desktop wallpaper you can download for SF, Fantasy & Horror. And there's Hal Spacejock 2 on the 'Coming Soon' list ;-)

You might wonder what my books are doing in a Penguin catalogue when they're published by Fremantle Arts Centre Press (FACP for short). Well, FACP distribute within my home state (Western Australia) but the rest of the country is handled by Penguin Australia. Therefore, my books appear in the Penguin catalogues and are sold into bookstores by hundreds of Penguin reps. And a great job they're doing, too.

It's the best of both worlds: FACP is a highly regarded small publisher just 20 minutes drive from my house. The staff really get behind every title and you never feel like a widget on the production line. Penguin is a huge company with the resources to get books into just about any outlet across the huge Australian continent.

And if you do visit the Penguin site linked above be sure to check out Tom Holt's new book. Penguin distribute Orbit books in Australia too.

Thursday, January 05, 2006

Quite a few people who read the first book are eagerly awaiting the second in the series - well, here's 1/32nd of it free ;-) The official release date for the book is March 6th, which is just two months away.

Wednesday, January 04, 2006

Fantastic Planet just posted their bestsellers list for December. This is a specialist SF bookstore in the middle of Perth, Western Australia, with a large range of SF and Fantasy books - well worth a visit if you're in the area.

Sunday, January 01, 2006

I heard from a Sydney bookstore that Hal Spacejock sold like hotcakes over Christmas. Either the customers have impeccable taste or the staff are armed with rubber truncheons and a list of books to get rid of pronto. Either way, Hal Spacejock is selling and that's damn good news because I've just finished two more in the series and my publisher would be most annoyed if the first one was still clogging up the sales channel.

By the way, I can never say, write or hear 'Sydney Australia' without remembering a 1980's ad on british telly. Mum and Dad are at the table noshing on fish & chips, and their daughter is nattering on the dog 'n bone in the background. She's been talking on the blower for ages, and the old man is getting antsy because they charge by the minute in the UK. Having set the scene, the conversation goes summat like this: